Monthly Archives: December 2010

Framing the World — An art & ecology notebook

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Excerpted From Cathy Fitzgerald’s An Art & Ecology Notebook:

Twelve essays  in four parts, focusing on ecocinema as activist cinema; the representation of environmental justice issues in Hollywood; independent and foreign films, the representation of animals, ecosystems, natural and human-made landscapes and readings of two mainstream eco-auteurs, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Peter Greenaway, Framing the World; explorations in ecocriticism and film, edited by Paula Willoquet-Maricondi, 2010

At last, a book on ecocriticism for film that is more than a review of films with environmental themes (though there are so very few of the latter as well). Lots of very valuable and timely essays on both mainstream cinema but also identifying key experimental filmmakers who have developed ecocentric approaches to film-making, for eg. in the work of independent Slovenian film/sound artist Andrej Zdravic. Also an excellent chapter on the very real limitations and lack of critical awareness in the director Herzog’s popularly regarded environmental films.

Also of note and just published this year is ‘Chinese Ecocinema in the Age of Environmental Challenge‘. I think its great to have this perspective of film from a region that has endured vast ecological destruction and is producing many poignant environmental films. This book is much more academic but again an excellent resource for those interested in the critical development of ecocinema. It’s also made me eager to search out the films mentioned in the book, like this one centered on  the 3 Gorges dam – ‘Still Life’

via Framing the World -two timely new books on ecocriticism and film — An art & ecology notebook.

Licence to Spill Campaign on IndieGoGo

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httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTCsw0M_yOg

The Campaign

In May 2010, a group calling themselves Liberate Tate released black helium balloons carrying ‘oil-slicked’ dead fish and model birds to the upper airspace of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall during the gallery’s BP sponsored birthday party. A movement was born. Gushing from floral skirts, spilling elegantly from giant white eggs, jetting from paint tubes across the floor of the iconic Tate Turbine Hall, the flood of oily resistance that followed has generated a fierce debate in the art world around oil, ethics and sponsorship.

Impressed, PLATFORM stepped up to argue the case, launching the campaign Licence to Spill, with support from over 171 artists. We argue that the oil corporations’ stamp on these hefty cultural institutions buys it a badge of acceptability, a social licence to operate. This quietly smooths over decades of ecological damage and devastating impacts on communities that are living with oil extraction.

The Project

In January 2011, during five days in a Central London art space, we will exhibit artifacts, images and videos from the work of the Liberate Tate collective, and host workshops to actively engage the public. We will explore the power of aesthetic interventions to disturb, re-vision and re-form the relationships between artist, institution, sponsor and viewer. This project is about celebrating resistance to big oil sponsorship deals. It’s about creating a dynamic and exciting space for people to learn, discuss, make, plot, strategize and empower themselves. We believe art is not just a mechanism to reveal the world, but also a force to change it. We will widely promote and advertise the event to ensure that the mainstream art world engages with the issues, and that their is a visible point for new people to get involved in whatever way they can.

In a time of massive public funding cuts in the we know this campaign is going to face critics. But if artists fold at the feet of big oil when they flash their cash, who exactly do we expect will stand up to them?

SUPPORT THE PROJECT:

Licence to Spill? — IndieGoGo.

CALL FOR COLLABORATORS: Laboratory Life Lighthouse, Brighton, & The Arts Catalyst

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Workshop: 20 – 28 February 2011

Exhibition: 1 – 7 March 2011

Lighthouse and The Arts Catalyst invite collaborators for the Laboratory Life Workshop, an interdisciplinary open collaborative art and science workshop, exploring intersections between art, biology, and new medical technologies.

Over nine days, Lighthouse in Brighton will be turned into a temporary garage laboratory in which five new projects will be created by collaborative teams led by artists Andy Gracie,Adam Zaretsky, Kira O’Reilly, Bruce Gilchrist and Anna Dumitriu, and then exhibited during Brighton Science Festival.

We invite proposals to participate in the workshop from individuals in the early stages of, or studying for, a career in art, medicine, science or technology. The Laboratory Life workshop presents an opportunity for professional development in a supportive, creative atmosphere, collaborating with an established artist and supported by both artist and scientist mentors and curators.

We will provide collaborators with hostel accommodation for the duration of the workshop, and technical facilities and materials for the workshop and exhibition.

Art-science production workshop & exhibition

Details of the workshop, projects, and how to submit a proposal: Call for Collaborators

Deadline: Monday 20 December 2010

The proposal should be emailed to - info@lighthouse.org.uk

Laboratory Life is conceived and led by artist Andy Gracie, and is based on the Interactivos? Workshop model developed by theMedialab-Prado in Madrid.

Andy Gracie, Bruce Gilchrist, Kira O’Reilly, Adam Zaretsky,Anna Dumitriu

Visit the original call: http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/laboratory_life/

2011 OPEN CALL FOR EMERGING ARTISTS: RESIDENCY AT THE BAMBOO CURTAIN STUDIO, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

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The Bamboo Curtain Studio has been actively supporting creative talents for the past 15 years.  Within our four reused spaces, we have been celebrating the arts and empowering the lives of over 200 local and 30 international artists, with much sharing across communities, collaborating regional and exchanging international.

Since 2009, Bamboo Curtain Studio (BCS) has launched an ‘Emerging Artists Program, to serve the local and international cultural practitioners, by providing one-month free exhibition or residency space.

After the successful results in 2009 and 2010, we are very happy to announce the open call of 2011.  We’ll again provide 6 opportunities for, exhibition space, production residency, visiting residency, and/or curatorial research for 2011.  We especially welcome applicants working in any of these three fields: cross discipline arts, ecology and environment, and community engagement projects.

All projects selected by our jury will be offered either a free exhibition and/or residency for up to one month.  However, successful candidates will need to cover their own travel and living cost during their stay in Taiwan.

Who can apply:

  • artist / curator / researcher / culture worker/ arts professional
  • open for all age, media, and nationality

Theme:

  • Community interaction,
  • dialogue between art and environment / ecology,
  • Cross discipline arts

How to apply:

Please send the following materials before 2010/12/12 to bamboo.culture2009@gmail.com

(please highlight your application as “Emerging Artists Program 2011” on the email)

  • Project plan within one page of A4
  • Outreach plan
  • Resume and portfolio (link or website)
  • Name and contact information of one reference person/organization from your country.

The selected artists will be informed by email on the 25th Dec, after the jury committee makes the final decision.

The Bamboo Curtain studio is thankful for the support by the “New art spaces program” of the National Culture and Arts Foundation in Taiwan.

Besides this ‘emerging artists program’, we welcome you to apply BCS residency any time, please enquire about costs and dates of availability of our venues ( attachment below).

Bamboo Curtain Studio is located next to a subway stop, and is only 30 minutes from downtown Taipei.  It is a converted chicken farm with four studio cum residency complexes and three outdoor spaces, with facilities and equipments for various performing and sculptural / ceramic arts.

—

margaret shiu, director

Bamboo Curtain Studio and  Bamboo Culture International

We have been Celebrating Arts and Empowering Lives for the past 15 years!

Come join us!

www.bambooculture.com

www.creativelab.tw

e mail bamboo.culture2009@gmail.com

tel 886 2 88093809

ISEA2012 Albuquerque – Machine Wilderness: Re-envisioning Art, Technology and Nature

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SYMPOSIUM + COLLABORATION • Fall 2012 • www.isea2012.org

New Mexico Arts and Technology Symposium with the International Society

for the Electronic Arts (ISEA), hosted by UNM, 516 ARTS and partners

DOWNLOAD PDF

In the fall of 2012, a group of New Mexico arts organizations will present ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness, a symposium and series of events exploring the discourse of global proportions on the subject of art and technology, in conjunction with the prestigious International ISEA Conference. Held every year in a different location around the world, ISEA has a 30-year history of significant international acclaim (www.isea-web.org). The symposium will consist of a conference, a series of art exhibitions at various sites, public events, performances, screenings, tutorials and workshops.

The Albuquerque/Santa Fe area is fast becoming a national and international center of media production, visualization and art/science collaboration. However, in the US, New Mexico is geographically isolated, and within the state the many initiatives in the electronic arts are spread out and isolated from each other. ISEA2012 will not only give the region international exposure, but will provide an opportunity for centers of electronic art and media in New Mexico a chance to work together towards a common goal, to build audiences and to help revitalize the urban center of Albuquerque.

The title for the symposium is Machine Wilderness. As part of a region of rapid growth alongside wide expanses of open land, New Mexico presents a microcosm of this theme. Machine Wilderness will present artists’ and technologists’ ideas for a more humane interaction between technology and environment in which “machines” can take many forms to support and sustain life on Earth. The project focuses on creative solutions for how technology and the natural world can co-exist.

Themes for the ISEA2012 collaboration in Albuquerque/Santa Fe include: a bilingual focus, as this project has the potential to draw significant international participation from Latin America; an indigenous thread, focusing on Native American and other indigenous peoples woven into the main symposium; and a focus on land and skyscape. Because of our vast resource of land in New Mexico, proposals from artists will be solicited that take ISEA participants out into the landscape. The Albuquerque Balloon Museum may offer a unique opportunity for artworks to extend into the sky as well. Subthemes of the conference and symposium include: Ancient Cosmologies and Electronic Art; Getting Off the Planet; Land, Energy and Environment; and The Future of Creative Economies.

ISEA2012 EXHIBITION:

The large-scale, multi-site, international exhibition for ISEA2012 Albuquerque will feature artworks that explore perceptions of a larger universe, space travel, and the science of space and the cosmos. Artworks in all media will combine art, science and technology, demonstrating the role art can play in re-envisioning the world.

The exhibition will be curated through a two-part process, with an international call for proposals and works selected by the ISEA Board and selection committee; and a portion of the exhibition titled Getting Off the Planet curated by guest curators Patricia Watts and Jenée Misraje. The exhibition will feature both museum works and commissioned site-specific works located throughout the state, some in collaboration with scientific and technological communities. Albuquerque sites include 516 ARTS and The Albuquerque Museum.

Curators Patricia Watts and Jenée Misraje state, “‘Getting Off the Planet’ is seemingly in our DNA. If where we are now no longer seems suitable, we seek to go elsewhere. As populations rise beyond the Earth’s capacity to sustain us, leaving the planet appears to be the solution. Perhaps this next frontier is where we will find the inspiration needed to continue our existence on Earth with greater insight. The real and imagined prospects of leaving our planet have inspired intriguing works of art.”

LEAD ORGANIZATIONS:

UNM College of Fine Arts – Conference host
ISEA liaison, conference organizing, co-direction of ISEA exhibition
516 ARTS – Leader of community outreach and marketing for fall collaboration
Collaboration coordination, marketing/public relations, publications, co-direction of ISEA exhibition

DATES:

CONFERENCE: September 19 – 24, 2012
COLLABORATION: September – December, 2012

STEERING COMMITTEE:

Sherri Brueggemann, Manager, City of Albuquerque Public Art Program
Regina Chavez, Director, Creative Albuquerque
Andrew Connors, Curator of Art, The Albuquerque Museum
Andrea Polli, Associate Professor, UNM College of Fine Arts and School of Engineering
Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Director, 516 ARTS

PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS TO DATE:

516 ARTS
University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts
The Agora Group/Z-Node
Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau
The Albuquerque Museum
City of Albuquerque Public Art Program
Creative Albuquerque
Currents: Santa Fe Video Festival
ecoartspace
¡Explora!
Film for Change & the Albuquerque International Film Festival
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
Los Alamos National Labs
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
STEM-A

CONTACTS:

Andrea Polli, Artistic Director, ISEA2012
Mesa Del Sol Chair of Digital Media and Associate Professor, Art & Art History and School of Engineering
College of Fine Arts
UNM Center for the Arts, Bldg. 62 MSC04-2570, Albuquerque, NM 87131
w. 505-266-2327, c. 718-909-5607, andrea@andreapolli.com

Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Producer, ISEA2012
Executive Director, 516 ARTS, 516 Central Ave. SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
w. 505-242-1445, c. 505-235-7580, suzanne@516arts.org, ssbarge@swcp.com

Patricia Watts & Jenée Misraje, Guest Curators, Getting Off the Planet, ISEA2012
tricia@ecoartspace.org
jmisraje@gmail.com

Regina Chavez, Director of Economic Development & Outreach, ISEA2012
Executive Director, Creative Albuquerque, P.O. Box 27657, Albuquerque, NM 87125
w. 505.268.1920, regina@creativeabq.org

Jack Ox, Artist/Scientist Coordinator, ISEA2012
Research Assistant Professor, Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts
Associated Faculty Member with the Center for Advanced Research Computing, UNM
t. 505-217-2167, jackox@comcast.net

Mary Tsiongas, UNM Faculty/Student/Alumni Exhibition Coordinator, ISEA2012
Associate Professor Electronic Arts, UNM
tsiongas@unm.edu

Jane daPain, ISEAYouth Program Coordinator, ISEA2012
New Media Artist, STEM-A Founder/Instructor (http://stem-a.org)
jdap.newmedia@gmail.com

Traffic Jams, Mired Talks, and Glimmers of Hope | Inhabitat #COP16

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Good Summary Article from Friend of the CSPA, Moe Beitiks on Inhabitat:

The first week of talks is over at COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, and my brain is mushy. It’s not from margaritas — what’s spinning me around is the political web of the talks, the freakishly high stakes, and how long it takes to get to the conference from downtown Cancun. The logistics of the conference are both frustrating its progress and creating new dialogues, while the world waits with bated breath for real solutions that will stem the onset of catastrophic climate change.

Read on for our exclusive report straight from Cancun!

Find the rest here:  COP16: Traffic Jams, Mired Talks, and Glimmers of Hope | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.

ARTSADMIN WEEKENDERS 2010

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Six intensive weekend workshops led by artists renowned for their approaches to making, facilitation and participation.

Artsadmin’s Weekenders are open to all practitioners regardless of level of experience; all that is required is an openness to meet, talk, play, perform and collaborate. The second series of Weekenders starts in September 2010 and runs through to April 2011. Come to one or all – each Weekender operates as a stand-alone while the series as a whole offers an opportunity to work with an outstanding range of artists.

The next series of Weekenders will be led by Station House Opera (Julian Maynard Smith), Simon Vincenzi, Kira O’Reilly, Oreet Ashery, João Fiadeiro and Karen Christopher.

Curated by the Artists’ Advisor at Artsadmin, the series reflects a wide range of performance practices. The content of each Weekender will be unique to the lead artist, reflective of their practice and responsive to the group of participants.

25 – 26 Sep 2010: Julian Maynard Smith
13 – 14 Nov 2010: Simon Vincenzi
11 – 12 Dec 2010: Kira O’Reilly
12 – 13 Feb 2011: Oreet Ashery
12 – 13 Mar 2011: João Fiadeiro
16 – 17 Apr 2011: Karen Christopher

All Saturday & Sunday 11am – 5pm
Please be sure you can attend both days in full
£60 per weekend
Strictly limited to 16 places per lab.

Book online via http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/opportunities/bursary.php?id=17
or call 020 7650 2350

via WOOLOO.ORG – ARTSADMIN WEEKENDERS 2010.

OPENwater | by Brian Andrews | Art Practical

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by Brian Andrews

On the weekend of November 13 and 14, a cabal of chefs, scientists, artists, and aesthetes gathered to find connections between their disparate fields as their interests overlapped within the tidelands of the San F rancisco Bay. The event was OPENwater, the most recent incarnation of OPENrestaurant, a collaboration of restaurant professionals Stacie Pierce, Jerome Waag, and Sam White, all of Chez Panisse. In collaboration with SFMOMA, the OPENresturant projects endeavor to bring cooking and its associated local environmental concerns into art spaces in order to invite a shift in the language and meanings surrounding their gustatory preparations.

via OPENwater | by Brian Andrews | Art Practical.